A uniform resource locator (URL) is a brief expression of a location where a resource can be acquired and an access method therefor, and is a resource address of a standard resource on the Internet. Each resource on the Internet is assigned a unique resource address, which comprises information specifying the location of the resource and how a related application program, for example, a browser processes the resource, and has been formulated in the Internet standards RFC 1738 by the World Wide Web Consortium.
Various resource platforms, for example, news websites, video websites, and music websites, are available on the Internet, and meanwhile more and more social networking platforms are being pushed. These platforms provide abundant resources, and the resources all have a corresponding resource address. Users access content of the resource via the resource address, and propagate the resource address over the Internet via sharing and forwarding and the like.
Currently, during a propagation of the resource address over the Internet, the propagation path of the resource address cannot be tracked, which is unfavorable to conducting statistical collection and analysis on the propagation of the resource address.